Spring Cleaning
by ChemicallyEnhanced
Summary: Takano and Ritsu clean Ritsu's apartment-for the very first time. Fluff.


Disclaimer: I don't own Sekaiichi Hatsukoi because headcanons like these would pop up if I did.

So I thought about Ritsu's apartment and how it looks like a tornado ran through it and well…this was born.

* * *

"Takano-san, please!"

" _No_ , Onodera, we're getting this done once and for all, no matter what you say."

Ritsu was distressed.

And by distressed, I mean enormously distressed—as well as enormously embarrassed. For his tyrant boss had just uncovered his dirty secret: his apartment. His apartment being the dirty thing here. Yes, Ritsu _might_ have forgotten to tidy up his living quarters near the end of The Cycle…and anytime in between. Alright, he just had no time to do anything like this. So now Takano was rummaging through his "junk", as he so-called it, and trying to make the apartment at least _look_ habitable, even though—

" _What_ in the world is this stain in the carpet here, Onodera? I swear that something crawled over here and died…and then decomposed," Takano was saying, his grim expression displaying that he was appalled at Ritsu's lack of…well lack of ability to take care of himself, really.

Meanwhile, the owner of the apartment himself was trying to pull his stubborn…whatever he was…out the door so Ritsu could collapse on the sofa—or floor—for an extremely well-needed nap, or think about all the deadlines he had to reach until the printers were literally knocking down his door, or despair yet again over his unresolved feelings for Takano—though he would never admit that he _had_ feelings for him in the first place—

 _Wow, are those the only things I ever think about? I need a life, not that my job will ever let me have one._ Ritsu shook his strange thoughts out of the way—there was something much more deserving of his attention right now, because Takano was currently scrubbing at that _stain_ as if his life depended on it.

"Well?" Takano demanded. "Aren't you going to help me? You should be grateful that I'm taking time out of my very busy day to do this for you."

"Yes, as if you needed another excuse to have a reason to molest me," Ritsu muttered under his breath, giving up and shuffling into the living room where most of the… _mess_ was. He started to bend over and pick up his dirty clothes off of the floor, wrinkling his nose in distaste at the rancid odor emanating from them.

 _How in God's name do I even survive in this place?_ Ritsu wondered as he tossed the clothing into a bucket meant for laundry, even though he swore before today he never saw that before until Takano had unearthed it from the depths of his closet. He glanced over at Takano, still hard at work trying in vain to clean that mysterious brown stain.

Ritsu let his thoughts wander for a moment, his eyes glazing over as they skimmed over the other's ink-black hair, determined hazel eyes, and—

Oh, that sweat gathering by his neck and forehead. _Perhaps I could—_

He quickly snapped out of his less-than-innocent imagining, flushing when he noticed Takano looking up to glare at his disability to work on anything other than manuscripts and storyboards. "Onodera!" He snapped, stopping his scouring of the carpet to swipe some sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand and sit back on his heels. "Are you just going to stand there all day or actually _do_ something instead of wasting my time?"

" _Your_ time?" Ritsu countered, more surprised than offended. "You're the one who barged into my apartment without any sort of warning and started…" He gestured a hand vaguely in Takano's direction,"…all this. I didn't ask for it."

"Onodera," Takano started, suddenly sporting a slightly dangerous smile on his face, "If you don't help me right this second, you'll find another large stack of paperwork waiting for you on your desk on Monday."

Ritsu looked at him in horror, but complied. He didn't want to have to take another all-nighter because of _paperwork_ , and Takano would most likely make that whole time hell for him. With a sigh that he made sure the other could hear, Ritsu dragged his feet over to where there were several empty boxes of convenience store bentos laying around and picked them up, shocked at how _many_ there were.

 _I could have sworn I cleaned up more than_ this. _This is…this is just pathetic._

Apparently he didn't, because by the time he was done throwing those boxes away, he'd counted at least fifteen or sixteen of them. No wonder anybody who went into his apartment automatically suggested another place to meet…

The two of them worked quietly for a long time—around an hour or two? Ritsu estimated, though his sense of time was terrible—something that amazed yet disturbed him because he'd never been around Takano for that long without him making some smartass comment about something or other, or an attempt to get Ritsu into bed with him. Ritsu shuddered, remembering the last time an event like that had happened. He still had bruises in some places he didn't want to mention.

That silence let Ritsu mull over the conflicting thoughts he'd been having for quite a while now, ever since Takano stormed back into his life. It was nearing the end of his fourth month at Marukawa Publishing, and still his boss hadn't let up his efforts to seduce Ritsu or make him say something along the lines of _I love you, Takano-san_. But still…there were _some_ moments that Takano wasn't being overwhelmingly arrogant or cocky, moments that he was actually…well, sweet. Like when he took care of Ritsu during that flu outbreak last month or offering to take a bit of the load of work off of him when Ritsu was swamped with it, or when he drew out the foreplay when they were—never mind, Ritsu didn't want to think about that right now.

Takano eventually _did_ get that stain out of the floor, though it was a combined effort from the both of them, two bottles of cleaner, and at least seven rags. Poor rags, never knew what they had coming. When the sun was just starting to set— _wow, had it really been that long already?_ —he and Takano sat back against the sofa, Ritsu strangely exhausted after this day of hard work…even though Takano did most of it, anyways.

Ritsu was just starting to let his thoughts run off again when Takano spoke up, his voice taking on an odd tone that Ritsu couldn't define. "Onodera."

"Takano-san?" Ritsu asked, tilting his head towards his boss. Those bangs of his covered his facial expression, but Ritsu thought he could vaguely see the hint of a smirk coming upon those lips.

"For all your hard work today…I think you deserve an award."

 _What? Oh, no—_

Before Ritsu could even protest anything at all, Takano had already dropped the rag he was wiping his hands on and tossed Ritsu like a bag of flour over his shoulder, rushing towards the bedroom like he didn't have any time to waste.

Ritsu couldn't even get out of Takano's infuriatingly strong grip—not that he wanted to. _Wait, what? No, I don't think that! This is not love, this is not love, this is most definitely not love!_

"TAKANO-SAAAAAAN!"

The only thing that could be heard from his apartment that night were the loud moans coming from Ritsu's mouth and the eventual whispered confession that came after it.

* * *

A/N: I just had to write this. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

-ChemicallyEnhanced


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